What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or mobile device when you first visit one of our web pages.

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve the site. The cookies that we use enable us to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task. They also recognise when you have given your username and password so that you don't need to do it for every web page that you visit. They also measure how many people use our websites so that we can make it easier to use and ensure there's enough capacity to make the site fast.

Certain cookies contain personal information, for example if you click on a "remember me" button when login in a cookie will store your username.

Most cookies will not collect information that personally identifies you. They will collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user's general location.

What cookies do we use?

Generally our cookies perform up to four different functions:

Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.

Analytical/performance cookies. These are cookies that allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to this website and see how visitors move around the website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

Functional cookies. These cookies are used to recognise your device when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Tracking cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You can find more information about the first party cookies that we use on www.digitalspy.co.uk and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

Name

Description

Expiration

Category

DSid

This cookie is set to note your specific user identity. It contains a hashed/encrypted unique ID.

2 months

Strictly necessary

_utma

Part of Google Analytics, this cookie tracks the number of visits you make to this site and the time of the first, the previous and the current visit you make.

2 years

Analytical/performance

_utmb

Part of Google Analytics, this cookie tracks your activity on our site per session.

30 minutes

Analytical/performance

_utmc

Part of Google Analytics, this cookie may be set for backwards compatibility.

End of session

Analytical/performance

_utmz

Part of Google Analytics, this cookie tracks the type of site you have come from before visiting our site; for example, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link.

6 months

Analytical/performance

_chartbeat2

This is an analytical cookie that tracks the number of visits you make to this site and the time of the first, the previous and the current visit you make.

1 month

Analytical/performance

DSg

This cookie is set to note your locale preference, e.g. "GB" if you prefer to use our UK edition.

1 year

Functional

DSm

This cookie enables you to set a preference for viewing our mobile or desktop site.

1 year

Functional

DSidData

This cookie enables us to personalise your experience when logged in with your DS account. It stores your user id, username and display name.

1 year

Functional

DSidpostfb

This cookie enables you to set whether you would also like to post to Facebook when posting a comment.

1 year

Functional

DScp

This functional cookie helps us understand if you have consented to our use of cookies on this site.

3 years

Functional

hearst_id

This cookie is set to help identify our customers across our network.

1 year

Strictly necessary

bbuserid

This cookie is set by our forum software, and tracks your user ID between page loads.

1 year

Strictly necessary

bbpassword

This cookie is set by our forum software, storing your encrypted password.

1 year

Strictly necessary

bblastvisit

This cookie is set by our forum software, tracking the date of your last visit.

1 year

Functional

bblastactivity

This cookie is set by our forum software, tracking the time of your last activity on the forums.

1 year

Functional

bbsessionhash

This cookie is set by our forum software and enables you to maintain a user session between page loads within the discussion area.

1 year

Strictly necessary

bbthread_lastview

This cookie is set by our forum software, and tracks the last thread you viewed in the discussion area.

1 year

Functional

rsi_segs

This cookie shares information across our network of websites. We would be able to sell the information collected using this cookie if it was collected elsewhere.

1 month

Tracking

ai_pages

This cookie tracks the number of pages you visit in a session.

End of session

Tracking

_qca

This cookie helps us measure our audience reach. It collects pixel code, referring HTTP location, current HTTP location, search string, time of the access, browser's time, any searches made on our website, and other statistics.

5 years

Tracking

acudeoSession

This cookie is related to our video advertising system and tracks which adverts you have seen on our video.

10 years

Tracking

cto2_digitalspy

This cookie helps us control how many adverts you see from a particular provider.

1 month

Tracking

Does anyone else use cookies on our website?

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies on our website. For example, advertisers may use a profile they have built on sites that you have previously visited to present you with more relevant advertisements during your visit to our website.

We have no control over third party cookies.

These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or tracking cookies.

Third party cookies cannot be used to identify you personally; they can only be used for statistical analysis, for example to provide you with adverts that are more relevant to your interests.

If you are based in the European Union and would like to learn more about how advertisers use these types of cookies or to choose not to receive them, please visit www.youronlinechoices.eu. If you are based in the United States and would like to learn more, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

If you would like to disable third party cookies you can do so by going to the relevant third party website and opting out there.

Please note that if you opt out of third party advertising cookies, you will still continue to receive advertising when using the website, however that advertising will not be tailored to you.

How to control and delete cookies

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our website, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The "Help" function within your browser should tell you how to activate the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies.

Alternatively you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information about how to restrict or block cookies on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find information about how to delete cookies from you machine as well as more general information about cookies.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU USE YOUR BROWSER SETTINGS TO BLOCK ALL COOKIES (INCLUDING ESSENTIAL COOKIES) YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ACCESS ALL OR PARTS OF OUR SITE.